Editing DVD chapters into a single title

[matthewjohn23]

I get a little frustrated with DVDs that have chapter marks in the wrong places. I've tried editing a couple of those DVDs with Womble and then encoding to DVD Flick. It works fairly well, but the DVD ends up having no chapters and what I would like to be a chapter becomes a title. I can combine the individual clips in DVD Flick into one title, but then I lose the chapters.

[guns1inger]

A title is an individual clip. A chapter is simply a marker in a title for navigation purposes. If you don't like the chapter points where they are, use VOB2MPG to extract the video and audio into an mpg file, then use GUIForDVDAuthor or DVD Styler to re-author with the chapter points where you want them to be. No re-encoding necessary.

If you have separate titles that you want to combine into a single title, you can use DVD Flick. First, tell it not to re-encode compliant video. Second, add the first clip, then open the title. Add the rest of the clips. When you do this you have a choice. You can have a chapter mark at the start of each clip, or you can have arbitrary chapter marks (based on time intervals, from memory).

If you want complete control over chapter positions then you have to do your own encoding. Chapter points must be on I-frames, so titles must be encoded to put I frames in the right places.

[manono]

...what I would like to be a chapter becomes a title.

Why, pray tell, would you want that?

As guns1inger says, if it's a good DVD already, no reencoding has to be done. I'd do this slightly differently. Demux the movie (PGCDemux), edit the Celltimes.txt to place chapters where you want (although about the only time you'll get them at the exact frame is if they're on scene changes (as they have to be on keyframes)), remux (Muxman) and then use VobBlanker to place the edited DVD back into the original, keeping the menus and anything else that you might want to keep.

[matthewjohn23]

...what I would like to be a chapter becomes a title.

Why, pray tell, would you want that?

I thought it would be better to have all the chapters in the same title, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. With no menus you advance the video the same way whether there is 1 title with multiple chapters or multiple titles.

[guns1inger]

Chapters only exist within a title. What you are saying doesn't make sense. Perhaps you could better describe the actual situation you have.

[manono]

With no menus you advance the video the same way whether there is 1 title with multiple chapters or multiple titles.

Yeah, but it won't play the same way. Ordinarily videos move from chapter to chapter seamlessly. With each chapter turned into a title there will be a distinct pause as you go from title to title. This may not be important with a music video compilation, but it'll be very annoying in a movie. In addition, converting chapters to titles will require a major reauthor. Doing it the 'normal' way won't. Yes, you'll still have to take apart the DVD to edit the chapter points and then put it back together again, but you won't have to do anything nearly as complex and involved as what you're proposing.

[gtprint1]

I have a friend who asked me to make some copies of videos he made for his restoration business. Problem is the original files his wife made are gone so i had to RIP them from his last DVD's. Using Womble, I am able to merge both of his DVD's into one, but I am having an issue. Several of the videos have 50 or more chapters in them. The chapters are basically each picture set to music. When i try to go forward, or get back to the main menu, it freezes up. I am thinking that if I can merge the chapters into just a few or even 1, the video will play much better and I won't have the freezing issue. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!